EU Naval Force - Somalia
Operation ATALANTA

On the morning of 13 May a ransom drop was made to the pirate group holding the St James Park at anchorage at Garacaad.

The St James Park had been on route to Thailand when she was hijacked by pirates on 28 December 2009.

St James Park is a UK Flagged chemical tanker with deadweight of 13,924 tonnes, and has a crew of 26, among them Filipinos (3), Russians (3), Georgians (1), Romanians (2), Bulgarians (5), Ukrainans (2), Polish (1), Indians (6) and Turkish (3). She is now safely underway and EU NAVFOR is continuing to monitor the situation.

EU NAVFOR Somalia – Operation ATALANTA’s main tasks are to escort merchant vessels carrying humanitarian aid of the World Food Programme (WFP) and vessels of African Unions Mission in Somalia, AMISOM and to protect vulnerable vessels in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and to deter and disrupt piracy. EU NAVFOR also monitors fishing activity off the coast of Somalia.